9.17.2012

Chevrons and Turquoise and A Rug

Chevrons and turquoise. That's what we were seeing Friday evening until about 3am.

The last time I went to Ikea I picked up their flat woven Erslev rug specifically for making a chevron rug. It was something I'd been wanting to make myself for a while (since they can be quite pricey). And in doing so, I enlisted the help of the ol' hubby's brain.

He broke out his trigonometry skills and even said to me, "This is so fun." In my head I was thinking...."whaaaa, is this guy serious?" He was square rootin' and all.

Ask me if I remember what square roots are and how to find the square root of a number. Nevermind, don't.

The deets. The 4x7 is plenty big enough for the area I had in mind.
We laid the rug out on the living room floor so it was comfy for our tooshies since we'd be measuring and taping for hours.

The guy even broke out his 45 degree triangle. It was a huge help. In fact, we used it all the way down the rug as we taped each chevron.

I wanted 5 points so he did some calculations and decided that each chevron would need to be 11 inches apart and each chevron right angle needed to be 7.5 inches long.

The tape we used was 1.5 inch wide blue painter's tape. Each chevron is 3 inches thick. Meaning, we doubled up tape (side by side) for each right angle.

Here's our 7.5 inch mark.

About the 3 inches I described earlier....you can see here how we doubled up the tape for each chevrons length.

By 2am and after 3 1/2 hours she was done. We were done. Taping was done. Now it was time to paint. I was determined to get it done that night so it could dry since we'd have a certain toddler running around the next day. Wet paint and toddler's don't mix.

As for the paint color. I wanted something kinda teal/turquoise. So I decided on Sherwin Williams Blue Mosque. Thankfully, it was exactly what I wanted.

You can see a little "bleed through" (because I applied two coats when it really only needed one) but I'm actually fine with it. It gives it a little character.

Done! We are pretty impressed with they way she turned out. The chevron angles are exactly what I wanted. I didn't want them too wide, too small, too narrow or too long. These to me are just right. She also gives the right amount of color and some much needed color to our dining room. Never did I think that I'd be okay with that color. But she fits perfectly in with our family. She's a keeper. Now we just need to give her a name.

Here's a view of her from the front door.

We started with little triangles at the very top and finished.....

with them at the bottom. Jer's measurements were spot on. Jer, you go with your bad self. :)

DIY'ing the rug saved us some benjamin's.

Breakdown of costs:
Rug: $39.99
Paint: $40
Grand Total: $79.99

Not bad for 4 1/2 hours of our time and huge rug that we get to enjoy for many years to come! :)